As we tip off March Madness, the good young people at the Complete SET Agency took a look for the second year in a row at the social footprint of the head coaches at each school. The coaches, especially in the highly visible worlds of football and basketball. At the biggest levels they are well compensated, driven and passionate about their craft, which largely revolves around the lives of very young and talented student athletes. Most are also great storytellers, with tremendous brand potential.
The results remain pretty similar to last year, albeit with some new more engaged faces.
Some of the numbers:
–Of the 68 schools (including the First Four participants) 47 head coaches have twitter accounts (last year it was 50, although several are dormant, and have not been active for some time.
-Only four coaches, Kentucky’s John Calipari (1.77 million), Kansas Bill Self (238,000 but the account has been dormant for a year), Washington’s Mike Hopkins (129,000) and Michigan’s John Beilein (110,000) have in excess of 100k followers, and they are decidedly different, with Coach Cal active and engaged, as well as Coach Hopkins, while Coach Beilein has kept it more to promotions on the court and for cause. 
-If you added up ALL the twitter followers of the rest of the field you still do not get close to Coach Calipari’s following to show how active and engaged he is.
–From 40k to 100k followers there are only nine coaches of note (down from 17 coaches last year), including Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (97k), Villanova’s Jay Wright (90k), Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams (over 80k), Louisville’s Chris Mack (73k), Auburn’s Bruce Pearl (67 k), Marquette’s Gene Wojciechewski (63 k), Arizona State’s Bob Hurley (44k), Central Florida’s Johnny Dawkins (42 k), and Maryland’s Mark Turgeon (41 k). Here Coach Boeheim’s tweets have become very limited, all to his cancer cause, while Buzz Williams remains one of the most active and engaged with authentic content and a look inside life in Blacksburg. Jay Wright is also along that line, giving fans a little more inside the defending national champs.
-Generally, the head coaches that are engaged seem to have lower than expected numbers, averaging only in the few thousands.
Of the 68 coaches in The Dance, only 10 even had accounts on Instagram.
The dominant one again was Kentucky’s John Calipari, who has both 360,000 followers and is one of the few coaches who looks to engage during the Tournament. NCC’s Le Velle Moton is second at over 48k, with Virginia Tech’s Williams with just over 13,000. Of course there is no way to adequately track any burner accounts coaches may have, or the ones assistants may be using to promote the successful March Madness run of their school to followers and recruits.
Overall the lack of massive engagement still signals opportunity. While perhaps many head coaches see it as not just a chore but as a distraction and one with a tough upside, it is a way at least to measure the pulse of what is out there and to help drive key messages at the right time. Many may rely on larger team or athletic department accounts to do their listening and messaging for themselves. It does not have to be always, but it helps to tell the story to a passionate core group of fans.
There is also a great opportunity to drive philanthropic and business opportunities if done right. A paid tweet once, when there has not been any activity for a few months (as has happened in the past few hours with some select coaches) rings really hollow and probably won’t drive interest. However a series of call to action posts for causes like Coaches vs. Cancer for all engaged coaches, including pictures can be a massive driver in buzz and interest.
For sure there are probably pratfalls to be avoided, including recruiting engagement issues. However for such a passionate group of fans, especially around this time of year, it would seem the immediacy of twitter could be great fun and a way to connect that coaches are missing. This is not unlike the lack of CEO’s and professional sports owners that have shied away from the platform as a way to engage.
Those who do it do it well and very effectively to interact. Many choose to sit on the sidelines.
How to grow the engagement? The rules for anyone remain clear. Be strategic, be authentic, and be consistently engaged, even if it is just retweeting positive thoughts. Think before you post, or just follow along. Ask for help from those in the know as to how to effectively and strategically grow one’s followings as well.
For those heading into March Madness, if CBS and Turner, and the NCAA chose to push the following, it would certainly go a long way. Talking about how Calipari or Va. Tech’s Williams engage as part of the flow of conversation would drive interest, and for those disruptor programs on the way up, using the limelight combined with the social helps the program at this time of year. It certainly would not hurt to give an edge.
Sure social isn’t for everyone. However of you are going to do it, taking the time to work with a staff member to do it right makes great sense, and can help create authentic binds that go way beyond the game.
As we tip off in Dayton and then in the afternoon Thursday, follow some along and see what you get. They certainly are amazing storytellers and brand ambassadors these coaches, and many remain undervalued and enduring assets, just check twitter to see.
